That's not uncommon.
Sadly this "intramural squabbling" is common among doctors and the patient is caught in the middle. The poor patient has no idea what to do.
A friend of mine had a "bubble" in a key intestinal artery and required surgery. He didn't know he also had pneumonia as well. The post op treatment plan for him was frustrating as different doctors told him to take or not take various drugs. Also, they weren't passing on their test results to other doctors in the chain. Then they were giving other drugs to counteract the side effects from the earlier drug which in turn caused other side effects. It was a mess getting it all straightened out. Not helping was that he was upset and confused by the whole thing and it was hard for him to follow along with everything.
You were fortunate that the doctors and the hospital were all in one place. His doctors were all over the county. Of course, not helping was that he wasn't allowed to drive so it was hard getting to see all these people, plus make appointments that wouldn't conflict with each other. He was able to round up some people to take him to various visits, but not everybody has that luxury, esp when your friends are working and would have to lose time from work*.
I'm glad it worked out for you. Best wishes for continued good health!
With the advent of inexpensive scanning devices and micro computers, this is practical.
Having worked in a hospital I do think it's a good idea. All of that stuff used to be done by hand by either the nurse or a clerk and was subject to error.
Upon admission, each patient got an Addressograph plate, similar to a credit card. (For some reason they still do to this day). For every patient action the plate would be used to stamp a form (remember the old heavy charge stamp machines cashiers had to post a credit card?), and the details filled out on the form. In the old days, chargeable actions, such as prescription or supply orders, would be keypunched and processed for billing. IBM had a sophistical patient accounting system to do that that ran on its 1401 using only 16K, indeed, many hospitals kept that system going years after conversion to more modern computers, running the 1401 under emulation.
Several times a day the patient's vital signs are taken. This may be automated now with the beep monitors attached to people, but they are important as a steep change could indicate something wrong and allows them to nip serious problems early.
Presumably now an order for say pharmacy is electronically transmitted so an orderly doesn't have to carry the slip down as in the old days. There was considerable traffic in such slips and forms.
That hospital was by no means unique in missing meds or errors. The computer system can improve accuracy, but human error is still possible. The volume of medicines dispensed is incredible, and many have special conditions. It gets messy.
Years ago when I was a patient after surgey I was entitled to a pain killer. I could choose between 30 mg or 60 mg every 4 hours. The problem was that 30 mg was not enough but 60 mg was too much and made me sick. So I asked for the obvious, such as 45 mg or to take the 30 mg more frequently. (Wouldn't 30 every two hours equate to 60 every four hours)? They said NO, one or the other. I also preferred an injection rather than a pill due to naseua which was approved, but sometimes the nurse insisted on a pill.
I don't know if modern systems would alleviate the above problem. It depends on a large part to the people making the entries in the first place and the subsequent people interpreting the entries and THE RULES.
More recently, with my mother in the nursing home, she got a sedative that knocked her out. I asked and was approved for her to get a half-dose but often the nurses wouldn't bother cutting the tablet for a half dose and still gave the full pill. That used to annoy me but I had other bigger issues to deal with.
IMHO, I think it is imperative for anyone getting major health care treatment to have a "manager" look out for their interests. That manager should understand all drugs and treatments, what they are for, what they are supposed to accomplish, and what side effects there will be. Sometimes there are treatments that are routinely done but not always necessarily in a particular case. My friend above had a friend help him much of the time with this mgmt to clear up some of the confusion.
Usually the manager is a spouse, parent, or child, but that person needs a cool head and good common sense. If the closest relative isn't too well skilled (and not everyone is), it could be a problem. Another problem is when two relatives disagree on treatment.
IMHO, many health care workers in direct patient care are overloaded; there are simply not enough qualified staff to do a proper thorough job. People are either stretched too thin, work double shifts, or inadequately trained helpers are used. In the old days only an RN could dispense meds, then it became an LPN, now it is aides under an LPN's "supervision". I think they're giving these aides, who are not that skilled or trained, too much responsibility. I don't like it when professional staff like RNs or LPNs work double shifts.
When I was in the hospital it was a classic Bell System dial PBX. Patient rooms had beige phones, all others were black. In semi-pvt rooms (with 2 beds), each patient had their own set, but were on a common extension line for the room.
The PBX operators would screen patient calls if requested and make blanket screenings. Calls to the maternity ward were rejected during certain hours at feeding time. No calls after 9pm went through. Individual requests were accomodated by placing a colored dummy plug in the switchboard jack for that patient extension. The operator would either reject all calls for that room ("the phone is disconnected") or restrict to "calls by immediate family only"). I don't think any of this screening is possible today with centrex, except to shut off rooms after bedtime. At another hospital with a centrex, the operators manually threw a toggle switch to shut off the rooms at bedtime and reopen them in the morning.
Patients could only dial 9+local number or the hospital operator, they could not dial any hospital extension. Patients could only be reached through the operator.
The hospital switchboard was 12 positions and very busy. There were
700 beds and 900-1000 extensions plus tie lines. There were also many lamps on of outside (trunk) and attendant calls coming in. Operators "overlapped", taking a second call while ringing on the first. This was a classic style operation with terse standard phasing and high volume. The operators made up a toll ticket and got time and charges from Bell for outside toll calls.Two operators handled paging for doctors. Paging was done through the headset and a key on the keyshelf. I believe Western Electric provided the PA system.
When there was a stat call, an operator would call the elevator man to position it as needed. Bell made a phone for elevators oddly shaped to fit into the phone box.
When the Chief Operator retired, she returned shortly afterward as a volunteer and worked taking calls.
One change from then to now is back then family were forbidden to call the nursing station desks, only doctors were allowed; the operators screened such calls. But today the operators put family right through the nurses' station to answer questions on treatment and condition. That does make it easier for family.
When I visited my above friend during his stay, I was surprised that his hospital still extensively used loudspeaker paging. Even 25 years ago the above hospital was moving to beepers; I figured by now all doctors would use beepers.
Anyway, Pat stay well!
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One thing I noticed about Mercy was the place was generally _very quiet_. Of course I kept the door of my room mostly closed, but there were no 'beepers' or 'pagers'; just the occassional incoming 'cell phone' call to a staff person. No loudspeakers, no blue or red codes while I was there. Lisa, I _hope_ I can stay well, I would like to at least get through 25 years of it here; which is not to say I would quit then, but it would be a logical place if it was to happen. PAT]